Global spotlight on illegal mica mines drives Indian villagers to hide deaths

Through a joint statement released on Saturday, it was revealed that the US and China have ’committed to cooperating’ on a matter of climate change. This comes in response to the preparation of the US virtual summit on climate change, for which Biden has invited 40 leaders, including Chinese president Xi Jinping. The two-day summit is set to go live on Friday, April 22.

On Saturday, doctors warned that Alexei Navalny, the jailed Kremlin critic, could suffer from a cardiac arrest ’any minute’ as a response to his deteriorating health. Navalny was arrested in February on old embezzlement charges for a sentence of two and a half years. He went on a hunger strike so as to demand better medical attention for his illnesses, which led to the deterioration of his health.

A suspect has been named by Iran in the attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that damaged centrifuges there. Iran said that the suspect had fled the country ’hours before’ the sabotage took place. The extent of the damage from the sabotage remains unclear, and comes as the country tries to negotiate with world powers over allowing the U.S. to re-enter its tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

Prince Philip was laid to rest Saturday in a funeral ceremony that honored his lifetime of service to the country, the crown and his wife, Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth sat alone at the service due to Covid protocols. People across Britain held a moment of silence before the funeral. Philip’s casket was draped with his military cap and sword, and military bands played tribute to him.

On Friday, Secretary of Primary Health Care of the Brazilian health ministry, Raphael Camara, requested women to delay their pregnancy, if possible, as the spreading COVID variant is more aggressive in pregnant women. ’We cannot say this to those who are 42, 43 years old, of course, but for a young woman who can, the best thing is to wait for a little,’ he said.

Saturday witnessed The Czech Republic expel 18 Russian diplomats who were identified as spies in relation to an ammunition depot explosion in 2014. ’The Czech Republic is a sovereign state and must adequately react to those unprecedented findings,’ said Prime Minister Andrej Babis, adding that the decision was based on ’unequivocal evidence.’

On Saturday, Italy witnessed a judge order Matteo Salvini, former Italian Interior Minister, to ’stand for trial’ on the grounds of kidnapping. In 2019, Salvini had refused to permit a Spanish rescue ship dock in an Italian port which resulted in the people having to stay on board for days together. The date for the trail has been set to September 15.

Abbas Araghchi, a senior Iranian official revealed on Saturday that there have been talks to bring the US back into the world powers’ 2015 nuclear program deal with Tehran. Although there stands to be an agreement, Araghchi adds that, ’It does not mean that differences of views between the US and Iran have come to the end.’

More than 23,000 prisoners were released by the military junta of Myanmar on Saturday. The same was done in order to mark the traditional Thingyan New Year holiday, but it wasn’t immediately clear if they included pro-democracy activists who were detained in the wake of the military’s seizure of power in February. The pardoned prisoners include 137 foreigners who will be deported from Myanmar.

Alexander Sosonyuk, the Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg, has been ordered to leave the country after allegedly receiving classified information from a database of the country’s main security agency. Ukraine responded to this latest development by expelling a Russian diplomat. Sosonyuk was detained after he met with a Russian and obtained material from a database of the Federal Security Service.

Lee Yi-hsiang, the truck driver from Taiwan who was involved in the island’s worst rail disaster in decades, which left 49 dead and more than 200 injured, has been charged with negligent homicide. The crash took place after a railway maintenance truck slid down an embankment moments before a packed train came down the line in the eastern coastal city of Hualien.

Prince Philip, the late husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, will be laid to rest Saturday in a service attended by 30 people. Philip died at the age of 99 on April 9 in Windsor Castle. While the ceremony will be limited to 30 people inside, more than 700 military personnel will provide ceremonial support outside. The funeral service will take place at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

The global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 3 million on Saturday, after 13,896 deaths registered in the last 24 hours. The figures come as a new wave of the pandemic grips the world. In focus is India, grappling with rising infections and new lockdowns. The country reported a record daily increase of 234,692 COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours. The US has the highest casualties at 579,942.

Raul Castro of Cuba has confirmed that he will be stepping down as head of Cuba’s Communist party. His resignation ends an era of formal leadership by him and his brother Fidel Castro that began with the 1959 revolution. The 89-year-old announced the same via a speech at the opening of the eighth congress of the ruling party. He did not reveal who he would endorse as his successor.

The French parliament adopted legislation Thursday that deems sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail. The final vote for the bill was unanimous. The age of consent was previously 15. However, a ’Romeo and Juliet’ clause allows for consensual sexual relations between a minor and an individual up to five years older.

Steps have been taken by the United States in order to prevent cyberattacks as well as other hostile acts from Russia. Due to this, the country resorted to banning Russian diplomats and President Joe Biden went on to announce a series of sanctions as well. This has resulted in Russia threatening the US claiming that they might strike back against the country.

Due to his role in the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, billionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned by the authorities. The founder of opposition newspaper Apple Daily appeared in court on Friday. He is among the several activists to have been found guilty of being a part of ’unauthorized assemblies’ back in 2019. Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment due to the same.

A Hong Kong court sentenced several of the city’s leading pro-democracy campaigners to between 8 and 18 months in prison over their roles in 2019 protests. Among those sentenced was Jimmy Lai, 72, who founded the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper. The judge said the defendants ’deliberately defied the law’ and the unauthorized protests posed ’a direct challenge to the authority of the police.’

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said his country has started enriching uranium up to 60% purity in response to the sabotage at its Natanz nuclear facility. The attack, widely believed to have carried out by Israel, blew up the power grid, which affected some of the site’s centrifuges. However, Qalibaf didn’t say the amount of uranium Iran would enrich up to 60%.

With concerns over vaccine hesitancy increasing in Malawi, the country announced it will destroy more than 16,000 expired AstraZeneca Covid-19 doses. These 16,000 doses are among the 102,000 doses donated by the African Union (AU) to the Malawian government last month. Health campaigners have said that the possible link with rare cases of blood clots might be putting people off coming forward.

Four days following the death of her husband Prince Philip, the Queen has resumed her royal duties. Preparations have stepped up for the ceremonial funeral of the late Prince. A retirement ceremony for a senior royal official was attended by the 94-year old British Monarch according to the Court Circular. Two weeks of mourning are being observed by the royal family in honor of Prince Philip.

Pakistan blocked access to all social media platforms for four hours on Friday in an effort to curb violent anti-French protests across the country raging for several days. The protests started when Pakistan banned a Islamist political party – Tehreek-e-Labiak – after its chief called for cutting ties with France over French President Emmanuel Macron’s backing of the Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons.

Early on Friday, soccer player Chris Smalling and his family became victims to an armed robbery at their home. The armed robbers took luxury watches and jewelry from the former Manchester United center-back’s home in southern Rome. No one was harmed in the incident which is being investigated by the police. Smalling had to hand over the items himself to the armed robbers according to reports.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said new Covid-19 cases per week has nearly doubled globally in the last two months and is now approaching the highest rate seen during the pandemic, so far. Tedros, said cases and deaths are ’continuing to increase at worrying rates.’ Several countries across the world are currently witnessing a new wave of coronavirus cases.